The new Friend at Japari Park
by neetGuy
Summary: This is my first fanfic where you get to know this new friend that was born at Japari Park through the eyes of Silver Fox. It is rated T just in case I might add some violence in the future. Canceled
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: When we met...**

I was humming and gathering all the stuff needed for my daily bath, when I heard a big explosion coming not too far away, so I took a peek through a nearby window in the direction the sound came from and could notice that a big white fog with some rainbow colored sparkles was coming from nearby. So I called out for Ezo Red Fox whot was probably playing that "game" of hers, but no response.

So instead I went to where she might probably be and as expected, there she was with her bushy tail wagging happily and not worrying about what's happening around her, as long as she can play her "game".

I sigh and then grab her by the collar of her shirt and say "Enough of that, I think a new eruption just happened and a new Friend might have been born nearby, so we should go check it out right away." as I drag her away while she cries out "But my game...".

After a few minutes of walk, we arrive at the spot, there was still a dense fog and lots of those colorful sparkles all over the place.

While we were distracted searching around in the hopes to find a new Friend, someone pounced at me from behind and I let out a small scream of surprise while closing my eyes and fearing for the worse, but then I felt a wet tongue licking my cheek, so I took a peek behind me and noticed first a pair of pointy black ears, then short black hair with its tips as white as snow and when our eyes met, I noticed her sparkly blue eyes.

"Silver, are you ok?" Ezo asked by my side while trying to get the strange girl from on top of me.

I simply nod while shaking off the snow in my clothes, then I face the girl that jumped at me, so I can take a good look at her and notice that she's wearing mostly black clothes with some minor details in white, her gloves and in a strip in her shirt.

After inspecting her, I ask "Are you a new _Friend_? What's your name?"

"Friend? Well, my name's Balto and I'm a dog...but my body kinda feels and looks strange right now..." she says while looking at her own hands.

I simply sigh at the thought of having to answer all of her questions, while Ezo Red Fox hides behind me and sometimes take a peek at our new Friend.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Fierce war at the Plains

After a long explanation, Balto then asks "So there's a lot of other Friends in this island!?". I simply nod at her, then she grabs my hand and dashes down the mountain with Ezo Red Fox trying her best to follow us.

A few seconds later, I ask her to stop and then she obediently do as commanded. So after catching my breath and waiting for Ezo to catch up to us, I tell her "Let me lead the way or we might get lost at the forest at the bottom of the mountain.", that Balto nods happily.

When we finally arrive at the plains, we notice that the followers of Lion and Moose are playing this game suggested by Kaban, but Moose doesn't seen to be with them and Lion is taking a nap at the bench made for spectators to watch it. So we decide to watch them play for awhile by sitting next to White Rhinoceros, that by noticing Balto, asks me "Is that the new Friend from the recent eruption?", which I simply nod, so I let her sit next to Balto, so they could talk more easily and also making it easier for me to watch the game.

Crested Porcupine, which is the referee, finally announces the end of the match, which ended at a draw without no scores... a rather boring game, which I might add, and that even Lion seems to agree by yawning loudly. But then Balto, which I thought that she wasn't paying attention to the game, asked "Can I play? Can I? Please...?" that she does while also showing me and White Rhinoceros these big and cute blue puppy eyes, so I go talk with Shoebill.

"Shoebilll, hi...", no response, so I continue "Would it be ok if the new friend would join you guys in the game?"

…

No response, just her usual staring, but looking closely, her cheeks seems to be in a slightly pinkish color.

Since Panther Chameleon noticed that my talk with Shoebill seemed to not be going anywhere, she intervened by saying while waving her hand to me "Hey there, Silver Fox. It's ok, your friend can play in my place."

I smile and thank her, then I go tell Balto, which lick my face as her way of gratitude, then she goes meet the others to learn how to play, their strategies or maybe introduce herself to the other Friends, I think.

After a few minutes of planning, the second game finally begins with Shoebill passing the ball to Balto, that smiles for a second and the next she's already in front of her opponent's goal as if it was some sort of magic, everybody on the benches was surprised by that, so all she had to do was give a weak kick in the ball to score, since even Japanese Black Bear, that is defending the goal, was still surprised by Balto's speed.

But what ended up really drawing the most attention in this game wasn't her, but Lion that decided to enter the game, her fierce look that scared everybody else on Japari Park, except Moose, made everyone gulp in fear while Balto faced her while looking at Lion's glowing eyes and still showing a happy expression that somehow still intrigued me...a little...

The tension before the match that would resume was so heavy that everyone, myself included, was sweating a lot... Just then that I realized, that I completely forgot about Ezo, so I looked at my side to see how she feels about this heavy atmosphere, and to my surprise, she's playing her new "portable game" thing that the professor found at the library recently and gave her...that was a relaxing view to me, but when Crested Porcupine announced for the match to resume, my attention returned to it.

It was so impressive at how Lion could easily stay on par with Balto's speed and her better skills in this game was what helped her score two goals and end up winning the match.

After it finished, I took a deep breath to calm down a little and try to go congratulate the winners, but my legs was shaking so much that Balto and Lion ended up coming to talk to me before I could even get up of the bench...

"Wow...The new friend here is quite impressive." Lion said while giving a big smile, one that you would normally see her give only when with Moose.

"Congratulations on winning, it was a lot of fun." Balto said while shaking Lion's hand, "but we gotta go, since there's still a lot of Friends to meet up."

"Oh, make sure to come back another day so we can have a rematch, ok?" Balto nods while we wave goodbye to all of them and head in the direction of the lake.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Love at the Lake Shore**

When we arrive at the lake, the sun started to disappear in the horizon, painting both the lake and the sky with a beautiful orange.

As I look at the beautiful scenario, Balto and Ezo Red Fox keep going to Beaver and Praire's house, in the hopes that they are at home.

After a moment, I run to catch up to them and when I finally join them, Beaver appears at the door.

"Oh, Silver Fox and Ezo Red Fox. Welcome... and who might you be?" Beaver asks while taking a good look at Balto.

"Hi, Beaver. This is Balto, the new _Friend_ from the recent eruption.", I answer.

And then out of nowhere, Praire appears behind Beaver and already starts introducing herself.

"Oh! Nice to meet you, I'm Black-Tailed Praire Dog, but you can just call me Praire."

Praire said while happily and energetic shakes Balto's hand, that simply nod while probably still trying to catch up to what just happened.

Then Praire would probably do her traditional greeting, but Beaver stopped her and I could notice that her faced seemed a little flustered.

Since it looked like Beaver seemed a little upset with Praire, I decide to ask them in the hopes that they wouldn't start arguing and we would need to wait for it to end.

"Could we stay at your house for the night?"

Beaver suddenly turn from an upset expression to a happy one and say.

"Of course, come inside."

As she pushes Praire to the side while gesturing for us to come inside.

When entering, we go through this really well made tunnel and at the end of it, we climb a ladder, it was really interesting at looking at other _Friend_ 's house.

After climbing the ladder, Ezo sits at their wood lounge chair, so she can go back to her _game..._

And then after some minutes have passed, I could notice that Beaver and Praire are holding hands and sometimes I could swear that they have been kissing each other sometimes, but neither Balto nor Ezo noticed that apparently...

Then after waiting a couple of minutes, I finally decide to approach Beaver to ask about their strange behavior.

"Beaver...sorry to bother you, but I noticed that you have been holding hands with Praire and being really close with her..."

Before I could finish, Beaver smiles at me and say

"That's because quite some time ago, we went to the library with lots of questions related to the fact that we had been feeling quite strange when near each other, and the professor explained to us that this is a human feeling called love, that we, _Friends_ , can also develop among us."

She takes a deep breath while looking at the night sky and then continue.

"At first, we wasn't unsure if that was really what we felt and that answer only brought even more questions, but the professor said that it is something that we can only discover the answers between ourselves and we should try going on a date, that she explained it being walking together while holding hands, going somewhere to eat and doing other activities outside."

we decide to sit on a wood bench and Praire rests her head on Beaver's lap. So after a quick break, Beaver resumes her story.

"I was still overthinking about stuff like, what will the other friends think if they saw us doing such things, what if Praire isn't interested in such relaxing activities and such, then Praire grabbed my hand and said that we should try this _date_ that the professor talked about..."

Beaver slowly lowered her voice until I couldn't understand anymore and I looked at her face and noticed how blushed she was, but at the same time I could still feel some happiness from her embarrassed expression. I question her.

"So, do you love Praire?"

She quickly looks at me in surprise when I mention love and answer.

"Yes... She's everything to me... but at the same time I fear that I might be too harsh to her only because she wants to do her _traditional greeting_.", she says traditional greeting with a slightly angry expression of sorts, which sends a cold shiver down my spine.

As we continue our fun little talk, Balto suddenly hugs me from behind, making me jump a little by surprise and make my face a little flustered.

"Today was a lot of fun, Silver.", Balto tells me and then licks my cheek playfully.

"I'm glad you had fun.." I say while trying to hide all of my happiness to be this close with each other.

Then I think a litle to myself the question "Could this be what love is like?", but I shake that question off of my mind since all I want right now is to appreciate this little adventure we are doing together right now... and also because I'm a little sleepy since it's quite late already.

After a good night of sleep, we wake up early next morning and say goodbye to Beaver and Praire while going in the direction of the Jungle Area.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: The calm at the Jungle and the storm at the Beach**

While we were walking through the Jungle, we noticed Moose and Jaguar arguing about something while Asian Small-Clawed Otter was happily playing in the river.

I would rather avoid their discussion, but before I could even notice, Balto was already joining their discussion, so I didn't have another choice but to also join it.

"You also seem strong, let's compete!" Moose says with her natural intimidating way.

"As I was telling you...What kind of competition you want to have?" Jaguar asks Moose.

"Hm...good question..." Moose think a little and then say "Since you're good at swimming... How about a swimming competition?"

"Oh, I'm in!" Balto answer without a second thought.

"Eh!? Well, if you guys are okay with that..." Jaguar says with a surprised look.

"You there" Moose says while looking at me " You'll be the judge of our competition."

The first to enter the river is Moose and to everybody's surprise, she doesn't know how to swim and Jaguar needed to rescue her.

"Why...did you...asked for this challenge if you don't know how to swim?" Jaguar asked after taking Moose out of the river.

"Because I wanted to show you that I can win against you even at what you're good at..." Moose answered and did her traditional pose.

"Just go back to the Plains already..." Jaguar insisted to her.

And I bet I also heard Jaguar saying "I don't know how Lion can tolerate you...", but it must have been my imagination since no one else seemed to have heard it.

And since it seemed that they wouldn't be competing anytime soon, we said our goodbyes and kept going through the Jungle.

I mustered up my courage and asked Balto.

"C-can we hold hands?"

"Sure.", she says as she grabs my hand without a second thought, which makes me feel a little relieved and makes me blush and smile a little.

While we were walking holding hands, all I could think about was what Beaver told me yesterday and keep questioning if love is like this and because of that, I wasn't paying attention to what Balto was saying until there was a sudden explosion sound and the ground shaken a little.

Balto went ahead to where the sound came from and when I was about to take the first step to follow her, Ezo Red Fox grabbed my arm and told me.

"Silver...I have a bad feeling about this...We should go back home..."

But since I was more worried at Balto than anything else at the moment, I simply ignored what Ezo said and rushed towards where I last saw Balto going to.

When I arrived at the beach, the location where the explosion happened apparently, and there was smoke everywhere, which made it harder to find Balto in this mess. So while I was searching for her, I noticed what apparently resembled the silhouette of Serval, that from the last time that I remember seeing her was during the day that she left the island alongside Arai, Fennec and Kaban, so as a natural reaction I called up to her but in a split second she disappeared and before I could even react Balto appeared right in front of me while holding Serval's right arm and if she hadn't done that, Serval would have probably sliced me up.

A couple of seconds later, all the smoke had disappeared and I was able to take a better look around and notice that Lion, Moose and Brown Bear were all in the ground defeated, while Balto was still trying to hold actually the right arm of a Cerulean that was shaped like Serval, Gray Wolf was doing her best to hold up a Cerulean shaped like a Common Raccoon and Jaguar just received a punch right in her stomach by a Cerulean shaped like a Fennec Fox.

While I feared for the worst, Balto suddenly started to glow and transform, and to my surprise, the professor and her assistant approached from the sky while the professor said.

"I never thought that those legends about a new form that a Friend could obtain were true..."

"if they really are, then this is a great opportunity to learn about it's abilities and appearance.", the assistance added.

And while they kept observing and commenting about it, I simply found it to be the most awesome thing I ever saw, she slowly transformed into a half husky, half human and as her transformation ended, it seemed like she had disappeared, but it was because her speed was so fast that my eyes couldn't keep up according to professor, and it seemed like she could defeat all of them easily, but apparently her speed and strength were decreasing quite fast even though there were only the Fennec-like Cerulean to be defeated, it was already very apparent that it was a one-sided fight and that Balto could end up being defeated any second.

Then I remembered that the Ceruleans are weak against water, so I ran to the ocean and tried my best to throw water at it from afar, but it noticed my plan so it jumped towards me with it's arm ready to pierce me and when I thought I would be dead, Balto jumped right in front of me and while she slowly transformed back to her normal Friend form, and right in the middle of her stomach was where the Cerulean's arm were coming out and Sandstars were coming out of it, I just couldn't believe what just happened right in front of me and while I was still trying so hard to believe that this was all just a dream and that I would wake up at Beaver's house, Balto said her last word.

"Goodbye"

After that all I could do was cry and hope that it was just a really bad nightmare, that I would wake up and hug Balto so I could rest assured that I would be able to ask her out on a date, that I would live happily with her at the Bath house, but I weren't waking up, I was still at the beach, with my clothes wet with this salty water, with this nasty creature right in front of me- wait, if this is real, then I should run, but I couldn't move an inch, I didn't have any strength left, my body seems just so heavy, but it's approaching me and as it lifted it's arm, I remembered about Balto and thougth to myself that maybe this way I could have the slightest chance of being able to see her again, so I gave the best smile that I could and accepted my fate.

But then I got pushed by someone else and the Cerulean's claws didn't hit me, as I turned my head I saw who it hit, it was Lion's right arm, after it sliced it off, a few sandstar came off from the very little left of her right arm and then I blacked out.


End file.
